(Scroll down to email I sent to journalist re “The Ally from Hell”.)
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/ Monday: CIA Drone Attacks in Pakistan
Hello Jeffrey Goldberg,
Further to your interview with Anna-Maria Tremonti, the “drone-ification” of North America should be of great concern to Americans and Canadians alike.
There are now drones along the Canada-U.S. border, as you may know.
Ref: www.sandrafinley.ca , go to the “Search” button in upper right corner. Search on “drones”. In particular, see 2011-04-24, 2011-04-22, 2009-02-18, 2007-12-12.
Lockheed Martin manufactures drones. LM was instrumental in the decision by Geo Bush to drop bombs on Iraq in an illegal war of aggression.
In my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Lockheed Martin started with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology (SIIT) to work its way to the point where there is an Aviation Centre going in at the Saskatoon Airport. It is to be a training facility for Lockheed Martin’s drone technology. Ref: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=594
It makes me angry that our young people will be trained to become part of this terrible technology. Prior to your part of the CBC programme on the drones used in Pakistan, the excerpts I recall are “bodies scattered … pieces of flesh” (people can’t even claim the body) . . . “radicalizing”.
Drones are barbaric behavior, it does not take too much sense to understand that “we” (Canadians and Americans) – – (Canadians now have “compatible doctrine” and “interoperability” with you) – – are the ones creating the hatred in the world. One would have to be heavily blinkered not to see it. It’s what happens when you kill civilians.
What is the drone programme in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (of all places) about?
Saskatchewan is the gateway that is being well-oiled for tar sands expansion. We are next-door to Alberta. The activists there have been very successful in rallying international attention to stop the destruction. So the deeds are being done through less-populated Saskatchewan. Heaven forbid that we, too, become successful in stopping the plans of the military-industrial complex – – the U.S. military is already well-placed here, should there be “problems”.
There is a two-fold plan:
– Tar sands development (appropriation of oil and gas reserves)
– nuclear reactors to supply the vast amounts of energy needed to heat the tar
The Saskatchewan public said “No” to the nuclear agenda. The Government and industry are now working through and with the University of Saskatchewan to circumvent the public wish. It is a story of money and corruption and propaganda.
I do not know to whom you are referring when you say “the ally from Hell”. The U.S. military-industrial complex uses extreme propaganda and quislings to take what they want, and war when that doesn’t work.
Drones are another blight on the world. It would be helpful if more Americans would join us in fighting the psychopaths.
Thankfully, most of us are sufficiently informed to see that it is not everyday American citizens who are behind the atrocities. Otherwise I would be demonizing them, in the same way as people in other countries are demonized through western propaganda. I repeatedly remind people who say nasty things about Muslim immigrants: you bombed the hell out of their country. Exactly where do you expect them to live now?
Sandra Finley
Saskatoon
P.S. The “President of the Americas” for Lockheed Martin, Ron Covais, told a Maclean’s Magazine (Canadian) reporter that they would not get what they want through legislative channels (democratic government) in Canada. Hence they will use the bureaucrats and agencies of government to bypass the public will. Ref: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=116
CIA drone attacks & the explosive rift between U.S. & Pakistan
Part Three of The Current
CIA drone attacks and the explosive rift between U.S. and Pakistan
In its war against the Taliban and its allies in rural Pakistan, the U.S. has a terrifying weapon. Death falls from the sky with almost no sound and, usually, with frightening precision.
The remote controlled drones take the war to the front door of America’s enemies, and the U.S. believes it’s killed more than 600 militants with the missiles in the last year. But sometimes, the drones fall on the front doors of allies as well.
It’s not known how many civilians have been killed by the strikes. The estimates vary widely.
But Karim Khan tells us he knows at least two victims: his son and brother. Earlier this year, he filed a lawsuit for murder against the CIA , including its station chief in Pakistan. Karim Khan says his brother and son were killed by a U.S. drone attack on his house, and he is suing the CIA. We heard from him.
Obaidullah Khan’s younger brother Kunar is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, and is a patient at the Lady Redding Hospital’s psychiatric ward in Peshawar near the Afghan border. We aired a clip.
Dr. Mir Alam Khan works at the psychiatric ward at the Lady Redding Hospital in Peshawar. He says Kunar Khan is not an isolated case. We heard from him.
CIA drone attacks and the explosive rift between U.S. and Pakistan
Rahimullah Yusufzai has lived in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan all his life, and is one of the country’s best known journalists.Rahimullah Yusufzai is the Editor of the Peshawar bureau of The News International. We reached him in Mardam, north of Peshawar, Pakistan.
CIA drone attacks and the explosive rift between U.S. and Pakistan
As we just heard, the US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal region have pushed the already volatile relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. to the edge.
Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He is the co-author of The Ally from Hell, an article in the December issue of the magazine, Atlantic.
He joined us from Washington, D.C.
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